Opposition in All Things

Our beautiful blue eyed blonde had a rough start to this week. He had multiple seizures a day on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday until he was given a prescription for an anti-convulsant medication which has, thankfully, stopped any more seizures from happening.
Those three days were very hard for me. It was hard to see Evan not being himself. He wasn't able to behave like normal-he was very lethargic and would fall almost every time he stood up. By Tuesday afternoon, as we left the doctor's office, I was extremely overwhelmed. I had seen my son have a seizure multiple times and come out of them in pain. He had fallen so many times and hit his head just as many that I felt his safety was in extreme danger. I was spending most of my time within a foot of him to help prevent him from falling. I'd come out of the bathroom Tuesday morning to see him seizing in the living room. And that afternoon after the doctor, he followed me to the bathroom, and promptly hit his head on the door jamb. I spent 20 minutes then crying. Ugly, face reddening bawling. I decided that I couldn't leave Evan so I didn't go to my staff meeting that afternoon. I also decided that I didn't have the energy to split my focus between Evan and Ryan so Ryan got to go play with Oliver's cousin, Tyler, for the afternoon while I laid and held Evan. Oliver came home after picking up Ryan and the prescription. After the first dose given, Evan was practically back to normal that night. He had energy. He had an appetite. He didn't fall asleep until 3am.
The next day I felt so much love and support. The night before I'd been able to talk with my parents and felt reassured just by hearing their voices and their concern. I got a phone call Wednesday morning from an old friend who'd heard that stuff was happening. I got some supportive words via facebook. Tyler stopped by since I had not told him anything about what was going on and he was worried about us. He then took Ryan outside to play and to lunch while Evan was napping and I was able to clean the house a bit. Oliver's Mom and sister came over to be with the boys while I had a meeting and then stayed to hang out for 2 hours after. It was nice to just be with them. And then my beautiful friend Shayla who had called me earlier in the day, who lives in an entirely different state, "brought" us dinner. She has always been so thoughtful and generous and it really meant a lot to me that she would do that for us. I was so overwhelmed by the generous acts. Even just the questions of "how are things?" by those who knew something was going on but didn't know what.
To explain how much of a big deal this is, I NEVER miss meetings on Tuesdays. By the simple act of choosing to stay home and take Tuesday off, my associate Hall Advisor knew there was something extremely wrong. She called me just to make sure things were okay and to ask if there was anything she could do. I even had an RA offer to bring us dinner...well, his best effort which would be a box of cereal.
I cannot express the giant difference in those two days. From moments of pain, despair, and confusion to being lifted up by love and service. Thank you for all of those things.
2 Nephi 2:11 & 23 says:

For it must needs be that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. [...]wherefore they(Adam & Eve) would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. 

These two days really expressed the significance of opposition in life to me.  I am thankful for Evan's health. I'm thankful that we haven't had to deal with this situation for the majority of the last 5 years. I am thankful for doctors. I'm thankful for loving friends and family.